The present invention relates to drive assemblies for wiper systems, and particularly relates to alignment of a wiper drive system with a structure through which a portion of the drive system extends.
Motor vehicles, such as motor homes, buses, and large trucks, as well as large boats and ships, often have windshield structures surrounded by body structures that have irregular shapes. In particular, the outside surface may be generally planar, but in a plane which is not parallel with an interior surface of the vehicle or vessel. This lack of parallelism is frequently found, for example, in large motor homes or boats of reinforced and insulated plastic construction.
Structures supporting windshield wiper shafts where they extend through sheet metal panels of automobile bodies are often manufactured to a specific design to suit an intended installation. While this is practical with motor vehicles manufactured in large numbers of the same design, as for motor vehicles or vessels that may be manufactured in very low numbers or as unique designs, there has not previously been a simple and reliable way to align a wiper system drive shaft as desired with respect to such structures.
What is desired, then, is a wiper pivot shaft support assembly that can readily be mounted in a desired orientation in a structure such as a vehicle or vessel wall whose inner and outer surfaces are not parallel with each other.